This invention relates to a musical keyboard for utilization in an electronic musical instrument.
Many musical instruments employ a keyboard. As is known, these instruments consist of electronic organs, pianos and more particularly the electronic musical synthesizer. The prior art is cognizant of such keyboards utilized for musical instruments.
In regard to such keyboards, there are different requirements necessary in order to provide the user with certain features which are necessary and important to the generation and control of music. For example, in a musical keyboard touch or velocity control is important. This is important as the musician may wish to rapidly strike a key to develop a certain sound or gently press the same key for other musical effects. Other parameters such as after touch or key pressure control are also important functions which desirably should be implemented in such a keyboard. Such characteristics should be provided in a reliable, versatile and cost effective means.
The particular musical keyboard to be described utilizes planar coil sensor arrays which coils are printed on suitable substrates and which operate with electronic circuitry for deriving an electrical output as a function of the position of the key. In this manner the keyboard contains keys which are totally noncontacting and, therefore, extremely reliable as there are no mechanical parts which can wear or deform. In implementing such a keyboard for a musical instrument, one desires an electrical output from the sensor array which varies as a continuous function of key depression. In this manner, the output can be used to provide a touch sensitive musical keyboard where the musician can cause certain musical parameters according to the control of each key. For example, as previously indicated above, by controlling the key, the sound emanating in regard to intensity or pitch should be modulated according to the manner in which the musician moves or depresses each key. In any event, other instruments such as an organ sometimes have only a single switching point per key, and as will be explained, the apparatus according to this invention can also be made to trigger or activate an electronic switch at a predetermined key position.